THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES : LOS ANGELES LAKERS vs. DETROIT PISTONS : Back Pain Puts Strain on Thomas : Piston Point Guard Hurt in Game 3 but Should Play Tonight

The Detroit Pistons were more than 10 minutes into their practice Monday morning and still no sign of Isiah Thomas. Cause for alarm? Not for teammate John Salley.

“I just thought he was late and about to be fined,” Salley said. “Usually he shows up at 10:59, with 58 seconds to get onto the court. When I looked up and saw that it was 11:12, I said, ‘They must be holding the clock for Isiah.’ ”

Mike Abdenour, the Pistons’ trainer, knew better. Earlier that morning, he called Thomas at home.

“Mike, I’m so sore, I can’t move out of bed,” the Pistons’ point guard said.

Abdenour feared as much. He suspected Thomas was really hurting the previous afternoon, after falling hard on his back while trying to block a shot by Mychal Thompson with about four minutes left in the Lakers’ 99-86 win over the Pistons in Game 3 of the National Basketball Assn. Finals.

“Right after the game he made a beeline straight to the training room,” Abdenour said. “He never does that. Usually, he’ll be on his way out, open the door, and say, ‘Oh, by the way . . . ‘ But this time he said, ‘My back hurts.’ ”

It hurt so much, that if Game 4 of the best-of-seven series had been scheduled for Monday night instead of tonight, Thomas said he couldn’t have played, even with the Pistons down, 2 games to 1, and sorely in need of their floor leader.

There wasn’t a soul inside the Silverdome on Monday, however, who doubted for a moment that Thomas will be there tonight, despite what Abdenour described as a bruised lower back just below the belt line.

“Our trainer is a miracle worker,” Detroit Coach Chuck Daly said.

While Abdenour will attempt to exercise his healing touch, the Lakers are anticipating that the Pistons--who could have earned Eagle Scout membership for their good behavior in the first three games--may lay on the muscle tonight, out of desperation if not habit.

“They may have to resort to that,” said Laker guard Michael Cooper, who had a couple of white-hot moments with Thomas in Game 3, when they pushed and elbowed one another at both ends of the court. “They’ll do whatever they have to do to win.”

Pat Riley would like to think that the Lakers will remember what it took to win Sunday, but the Laker coach is only too aware of their pattern of easing up--especially on the road--when they’re ahead in a series.

“I told the players, ‘Here we are again,’ ” Riley said. “I saw a couple of things in the hotel last night that looked like the edge was off, that we were setting ourselves up for what we’ve been going through for the last six or seven weeks.

“I told them we had to have the guts and courage not to get soft, keep that feisty, nasty attitude. The guys had been angry with each other, because we were fighting extinction.”

Another loss at home tonight and the Pistons will be nearly extinct. Not wishing to call it a season just yet, Thomas called Detroit center Bill Laimbeer Sunday night and left a message on his answering machine.

“He said, ‘Just keep your head up,’ that kind of deal,” Laimbeer said. “He said, ‘Be happy, we’re still going to win.’

“We call each other like that whenever anybody’s down.”

And Laimbeer, to be sure, was feeling lower than a laid-out Thomas Hearns Sunday night.

“Yeah, you go home and drown your sorrows,” said Laimbeer, who didn’t leave Sunday until venting some frustration at referee Earl Strom and earning one of the Pistons’ three technical fouls in the process. (Daly got the two others, which got him an automatic ejection.)

“You mope around the house, yell at the wife and beat the dog,” Laimbeer added. “The next day, the sun comes up and you go back to work.”

The Piston offense, which registered a dismal 41.7% shooting Sunday and scored the fewest points of any Laker playoff opponent this season, would probably work a little better, Thomas said, if Laimbeer could start hitting a few of his shots.

The Piston center, who shot better than 55% from 18 feet and beyond against the Boston Celtics, according to Riley, is averaging a quiet 10.7 points against the Lakers.

Thomas told pool reporter David DuPree of USA Today: “What hurt us last game was that they had (James) Worthy guarding (Joe) Dumars and Magic guarding Laimbeer, and if we can’t take advantage of a guard guarding our center, we’re in trouble.

“Those matchups threw us all off, because when our shots went up, we had a hard time matching up with the right men.”

Cooper said that the Pistons had trouble deciding whether to make an all-out assault on the offensive boards or to get back on defense, and the Lakers took advantage of that confusion to run up a 31-18 advantage in the third quarter, breaking open the game.

Offensively, Daly said, he noticed that his shooting guards, Dumars and Vinnie (Microwave) Johnson seemed reluctant to take their usual shots in the face of the Lakers’ switching, trapping defense.

“I felt they were a little hesitant about putting the ball up,” Daly said. “I may have come late with Vinnie, and he may have clicked off on me subconsciously. We’ve seen it before. He’ll go 3 for 12, then go 10 out of 12.

“But we haven’t played a team of this caliber defensively, with their physical skills.”

Although Adrian Dantley, whose production has plummeted from 34 points to 14 in 3 games, refused to give any credit to Laker forward A.C. Green--”It’s not A.C. at all, it’s the (second) guy running at me as soon as I get the ball,” Dantley said--Daly was more generous in his praise for Green.

When asked what it meant to have Green score 21 points, a career playoff high, in Game 3, Daly said: “It means (the Lakers) will probably have five guys on the West All-Star team next season.”

Daly said he hadn’t tried to get tossed out of Sunday’s game, and when someone kiddingly reminded him of his ejection in a game against the Chicago Bulls earlier this season, he said:

“Oh yeah, for fighting. Did you ever see me try to punch my way out of a paper bag? Awesome. Me and Mother Teresa could have a great fight: ‘Peace, Peace, Peace.’ ”

The Silverdome won’t be any place for a pacifist tonight, however. Sore back and all, Thomas will come out fighting, Cooper promised.

“He’ll play. I know he’ll play,” Cooper said. “He’s like Magic. He won’t let a back injury, the flu, anything, keep him from playing.”

Laker Notes

The 108 points scored by the Lakers in Game 2 were the most given up in regulation time by the Pistons in their 18 playoff games. . . . Pat Riley on the San Antonio Spurs’ hiring of Larry Brown to a reported 5-year, $3.5-million contract: “I toast Larry Brown. He set a new standard, didn’t he?” Riley is paid a reported $350,000 by the Lakers. Asked his opinion of what UCLA Athletic Director Peter Dalis and Chancellor Charles Young must have thought of Brown going to San Antonio after taking a pass on the Bruins, Riley said: “There will be a lot of people left behind who will have their own opinions.”